Some known methods use mechanical pre-working to roughen the surfaces of circuit carriers that form an interface with the plastic package molding compound or use physical-chemical methods, such as plasma etching, to achieve improved interlocking of the interfaces of different components. Still other methods such as electrolytic coating with adhesion-improving layers on the basis of inorganic and metallic compounds have been used. However, these known methods do not yield the desired results. Furthermore, the previous adhesion-improving measures, such as plasma etching, are extremely expensive and do not produce any significant improvement in the molding compound adhesion and remain confined to the preparation of electrically conductive surfaces.
However, modern circuit carriers include both metallic wiring structure surfaces and plastic surfaces, which are formed by the carrier material of the circuit carrier. The risk of delamination between a plastic package molding compound and the circuit carrier material also exists in these regions. Particularly hazardous is the penetration of moisture in such interfaces, with the result that, when a semiconductor device is soldered onto a superordinate circuit board, the so-called “popcorn” effect may occur, involving components of the semiconductor device, in particular parts of the plastic package, popping off from the surface of the circuit carrier.